Open veins

Environmentalism: Last nail in the miners' coffin?

This post is a bit old because it was waiting to be published elsewhere which didn't happen so am posting it here. Its relevance about not forgetting the workers as we fight against fossil fuels has relevance though for future struggles. The slightly "cheesy" slogan on my partner's pregnant belly with the coal power plant behind (which featured in the Guardian newspaper) links through to a gallery of my photos from climate camp. You can also see more including a piece that Juliette published on Yes Magazine. 

I was barely out of primary school, let alone politically conscious, but images of police clashing with miners in the mid-80s still ricochet in my head. The images have been reinforced more recently by films such as “Brassed off” that gave an insight into the way Thatcher’s war on the miners divided and destroyed strong working class communities and culture.

If I had been ten years older in 1984, there is no doubt I would have been on the side of the miners. Yet as we approach the 25 year anniversary of the miner’s strike, I have joined the growing movement of activists who are calling for “No New Coal” and want to see coal power stations shut down to stop climate chaos. The contradiction has sat with me ever since deciding to go down to Climate Camp last week – and was brought to fore by the arrival of the renowned trade union fighter Arthur Scargill at the camp on Monday. 

Peace returns but issues unresolved

I don't have much time to blog right now, but recommend the following pieces for updates on what has happened recently: Reactionary rampage: the paramilitary massacre in Bolivia by Forrest Hilton, Brewing Civil war in Time Magazine, and the Machine Gun and the Meeting Table in Upside Down World.

Of course these stories are accompanied by personal ones of tragedy that you usually don't hear, except perhaps in countries like Bolivia because of their size. It was brought home to me, the costs of struggle in Bolivia, when I heard news that a friend of a friend  lost her cousin in the massacre in Pando. I can only imagine how devastated she is.

There are a huge number of websites and blogs to check up on Bolivia nowadays. But these are some of the English-speaking ones I have been checking recently:

Upside Down World: great site run by a friend Ben Dangl on political developments in Latin America

Abiding in Bolivia: amusing caustic blog attacking the Right in Bolivia and exposing the generally ignorant international press coverage

Missionary Man: Another friend from Cochabamba, who when he writes does good analysis of what is happening

Bolivia Information Forum: Does some good briefings on developments

Machetera: does translations of key articles

Ukhampacha: Tends to be more updated in Spanish than English, but recently there has  been a burst of activity on the website

Elite backlash

What do you do if you are living in a country where a government looks like taking back thousands of acres of your land (most of which you stole but hey you have been allowed it up to now)? Or perhaps you are a business leader who has proudly had government in your pocket, yet now they pay little attention to you and keep doing things that just don't make "good business sense." Or perhaps you are white and a small minority in a largely indigenous country but have always had members of your family in power, and suddenly the government is taken over by loads of ignorant people who look frighteningly like your sweet housemaid.

Well I guess you might look at changing the national government, but they have received more votes than you ever did, so you opt to take control of local government which is a bit easier. Then you push for more power and autonomy. When the government doesn't look like giving you what you want, still keep their money on the purse strings on which your local power depends, and worse of all threaten to deepen their programme of changes, you start to get desperate. Maybe you decide to organise some strikes, marches, pay bands to write cheesy lyrics about freedom, hope bit by bit you can make the central government's work impossible and that their supporters will start to wane.

Then you have a referendum, and you can't believe how stupid your own countrymen are because they vote in ever larger numbers for the government - even goddamit from your own region. Hey, isnt democracy meant to be on my side? Isn't that what Bush promised? What is one to do?

Changing lives

A boy weaves down a road bordered with neat gardens and pitches a newspaper onto the front lawn of a house. There is a sound of a click and the automated sprinkler system starts up, soaking the newspaper. A middle-aged man pulls out of his driveway. “Bye daddy,” chirrup some girls cutely. Nope, it’s not a scene from a movie. It’s a scene from my new life.

And yes, for those forlorn ten loyal blog readers who have faced months of silence from this blog, it is a bit of a jump from my former existence in Bolivia. I did warn you a few blogs ago, but never had a chance to properly explain myself.

I blame it all on Goethe and a Venezuelan brothel.

Andean blessing

Click on the photo for a gallery of images from an Andean blessing that we organised by Lake Titicaca in our last weeks in Bolivia to celebrate friendship, our commitment and our new baby.